Michael Coy
THE big festivals are fantastic. Of course they are.
Sevilla on the first night of the April Fair, when the Portada is lit up for the first time; Malaga during Holy Week, when the soldiers of La Legion carry the Crucifix – these moments are unforgettable.
But if you want to see the true soul of Andalucia, travel to the smaller, more homely festivals – the ones that rarely make it onto Instagram feeds or package tour itineraries.
Take Algodonales, for instance – a lovely little town, 36 kilometres north-west of Ronda.
On the last Saturday in May, just before Pilgrimage Sunday, the flower offering to the Virgencita de la Sierra takes place. It’s a heartfelt local ritual, carried out on horseback in front of the Church of Santa Ana, with riders dressed in traditional Andalucian costume.
This is a festival in the truest sense of ‘local’. The people aren’t dressing up and mounting horses for the benefit of tourists. They’re doing it because they’ve always done it – every May, since… forever.
The riders and carriage-drivers are known to the villagers. This matters – to them, and to the spectators.
The Saturday ‘Flower Offering’ is technically just the beginning. Needless to say, the people of Algodonales turn it into a street party, complete with music, costume, dancing, and alegria.
When a British person talks of happiness, it’s usually a deeply personal feeling.
An andaluz, however, is referring to something else entirely: a communal sensation – something everyone can surf together, but which remains larger than all of us. That’s alegria.
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On Sunday, the Camino begins. Around 8am, carts gather in the Plaza de la Constitución, and by 10am, the procession departs for the Puente la Nava (Nava Bridge).
There, you’ll find bars, fairground rides, and food stalls – all operating throughout the day.
Back in the village on Sunday evening, a live band belts out party anthems like Movimientos Sexy, and people drink, talk and laugh under the stars.
For small rural communities across Andalucia, these traditional festivals have taken on a poignant role in recent years.
Young people often leave in search of work, but they still hold the village fiestas dear – and return when they can.
It’s bitter-sweet to watch them hug and kiss, knowing they were once close neighbours, now reunited only during these fleeting celebrations.
So what exactly are they celebrating? Why do they carry a statue of the Virgin Mary into the countryside?
These rituals are probably older than Christianity itself. When the people of Algodonales offer flowers to the Virgin, they are really honouring the flowers – the return of fertility to their native soil after the long winter.
Who knows? Perhaps something remarkable once happened out in the campo – some event now lost in the churn of history – and the villagers, even today, feel compelled to mark it with an annual procession.
If your daily life is one of hard, ceaseless work, then a few days in the calendar to don your finery, ride a horse, have a drink and a laugh – that means something.
But it goes deeper than that.
To the andaluz, life is a banquet – and they’re celebrating life.
